She’s wild about the Scriptures

Think of all the people who have read The Book of Esther in the Bible down through the ages.

It did not occur to most – if any – what occurred to Wanda Sieber.

“I think it was just tailor-made for a musical – WOW, WOW,” she says with her trademark enthusiasm and verbal special effects.

Sieber, 31, a Green Bay mother of five, writes musicals. She does them the modern way – by computer.

Sieber not only composes the music and lyrics, she lays down a soundtrack (by computer) for her cast and then produces the whole shebang for the stage.

These are not little efforts. Her latest show, Esther, Queen of Persia, runs two hours and 20 minutes and has a cast of 47 and 17 songs.

“And two reprises and a bunch of traveling music, thank you,” she adds.

Some people are meant to catch footballs, some to plat the workings of the universe, some to sing like a lark, some to preach, some to run a nation – Wanda Sieber, it seems, is meant to make music.

Esther, Queen of Persia is Part Four in the continuing saga of “Wanda Meets High-Tech.”

Her latest computer-generated creation opens a five-performance run Friday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Admission is free, with no donation asked; the production is funded by area and national Mormon Church money.

On top of the music, remember this is a story that takes place more than 2,400 years ago and needs a palace, a throne room and costumes appropriate to the time.

In the midst of describing all the labor, Sieber bursts out with, “Wow, this is fun! It’s better than being barefoot in Jerusalem.”

Given her track record and desire, Sieber was invited to write another musical for the church.

“Last time (in the 16-song Hidden Treasures), it was parables,” she says. “This time, I wanted it to be a story. I didn’t care what story. I was a little mad at Andrew Lloyd Webber for taking Joseph (for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat).”

Sieber started Esther last summer, just after performing in Guys and Dolls with Music Theatre.

“I did that with a purpose, of course,” she says. “I would never go and squander time on just plain ol’ fun. Gotta have a reason. Mostly I went to see how the big guys (Dudley and James P. Birder) do it (produce a show), to see if I was doing it right. And I’m doing it right.”

Producing the show is the easy part for Sieber. “It’s not scary, it’s very tangible,” she says. “However, there is some work to it. It just always seems like a big coast after writing.”

With five kids, Sieber mostly writes late at night. Songs kind of flow from her.

“Yeah, it’s a gift, and it was there,” she says.

Adding parts and instruments – arranging the songs – is another matter.

“Arranging is so scary for me because I don’t have the tools,” she says. “Some day I’m going to trot myself over to the university and take an arranging class. What a concept!”

Sieber also is working on what she calls her Broadway show. She’s been at it a year.

“Ask me if I want to write something for somebody around her,” she says, then gets her wish. “Yes, I’m going to go ask them (the theater groups). I feel I should ask.”

She’d be surprised if she got a taker “because I’m local.”

With time closing in on opening night, Sieber wants specific reaction when the performance ends.

“Holy cow, I want them to jump with both feet into the Bible and say, ‘Was that really all in there?” she says. “When they go back and read it again, it will be alive, absolutely alive.

“Somebody said, ‘I’m amazed you could read the Scriptures and make a whole musical out of it.’ I thought, ‘It’s all right there, what do you mean?’

“And I went back and I read it, and it’s not all there. A lot of it is imagination, but I just saw it.”